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SCOTTISH
CLANS & FAMILIES: ROSS
Clan
Ross
The
clan Anrias or Ross - called in Gaelic clan Roisch na Gille
Andras, or the offspring of the follower of St Andrew - by which
can be meant only the chiefs or gentry of the clan, are
descended from the Earls of Ross, and through them from the
ancient Maormors of Ross. According to Mr Smibert, the mass of
the clan Ross was swallowed up by and adopted the name of the
more powerful Mackenzies. "The generality", he says,
"had never at any time borne the name of Ross, the gentry
of the sept only were so distinguished. Thus, the common people,
who must naturally have intermingled freely with the real
Mackenzies, would ere long retain only vague traditions of their
own descent; and when the days of regular registration, and also
of military enlistment, required and introduced the use of
stated names, the great body of the true Ross tribe would,
without doubt, be enrolled under the name of Mackenzie, the
prevailing one of the district. In all likelihood, therefore,
the old Rosses are yet numerous in Ross-shire".
The
first know Earl of Ross was Malcolm, who lived in the reign of
Malcolm the Maiden (1153-1165).
Ferquhard,
the second earl, called Fearchar Mac an t-Sagairt, or son of the
priest, at the head of the tribes of Moray, repulsed Donald
MacWilliam, the son of Donald Bane, when, soon after the
accession of Alexander II in 1214, that restless chief made an
inroad from Ireland into that province.
William,
third Earl of Ross, was one of the Scots nobles who entered into
an agreement, 8th March 1258, with Llewellyn, Price of Wales,
that the Scots and Welsh should only make peace with England by
mutual consent.
William,
fourth earl, was one of the witnesses to the treaty of Bruce
with Haco, King of Norway, 28th October 1312. With his clan he
was at the battle of Bannockburn, and he signed the memorable
letter to the Pope in 1320, asserting the independence of
Scotland. He had two sons, Hugh, his successor, and John, who
with his wife Margaret, second daughter of Alexander Comyn,
fourth Earl of Buchan, got the half of her father's lands in
Scotland. He had also a daughter, Isabel, who became the wife of
Edward Bruce, Earl of Carrick and King of Ireland, brother of
Robert the Bruce, 1st June 1317.
Hugh,
the next Earl of Ross, fell, in 1333, at Halidonhill.
Hugh's
successor, William, left no male heir. His eldest daughter,
Euphemia, married Sir Walter Lesley of Lesley, Aberdeenshire,
and had a son, Alexander, Earl of Ross, and a daughter,
Margaret. Earl Alexander married a daughter of the Regent
Albany, and his only child, Euphemia, Countess of Ross, becoming
a nun, she resigned the earldom to her uncle John, Earl of
Buchan, Albany's second son. Her aunt Margaret had married
Donald, second Lord of the Isles, and that potent chief assumed
in here right the title of Earl of Ross, and took possession of
the earldom. This led to the battle of Harlaw in 1411.
On
the death of the Earl of Buchan and Ross, at the battle of
Verneuil in France in 1424, the earldom of Ross reverted to the
crown. James I on his return from his long captivity in England,
restored it to the heiress of line, the mother of Alexander,
Lord of the Isles, who, in 1420, had succeeded his father,
Donald, above mentioned. In 1429 he summoned together his
vassals, both of Ross and the Isles, and at the head of 10,000
men wasted the crown lands in the vicinity of Inverness, and
burned the town itself to the ground. At the head of some
troops, which he had promptly collected, the king hastened, by
forced marches, to Lochaber, and surprised the earl. The mere
display of the royal banner won over the clan Chattan and clan
Cameron from his support, and he himself, suddenly attacked and
hotly pursued, was compelled to sue, but in vain, for peace.
Driven to despair, he resolved to cast himself on the royal
mercy, and on Easter Sunday, did so in am extraordinary manner.
Alexander's
son, John, the next Earl of Ross and Lord of the Isles, having
joined the Earl of Douglas in his rebellion against James II
sent, in 1455, to the western coast of Scotland an expedition of
5000 men, under the command of his near kinsman, Donald Balloch,
Lord of Islay. With this force he desolated the whole coast from
Innerkip to Bute, the Cumbrays, and the island of Arran, but
from the prudent precautions taken by the king to repel the
invaders, the loss was not very considerable. The Earl of Ross
afterwards made his submission, and was received into the royal
favour. On the accession of James III however, his rebellious
disposition again showed itself. Edward IV of England having
entered into a negotiation with him to detach him from his
allegiance, on the 19th October 1461, the Earl of Ross, Donald
Balloch, and his son, John of Islay, held a council of their
vassals and dependants at Astornish, at which it was agreed to
send ambassadors to England to treat with Edward, for assistance
to effect the entire conquest of Scotland. On the forfeiture of
the Lord of the Isles in 1476, the earldom of Ross became vested
in the crown.
Hugh
Ross of Rarichies, brother of the last Earl of Ross, obtained a
charter of the lands of Balnagowan in 1374, and on him by clan
law the chiefship devolved. In the beginning of the 18th
century, Donald Ross of Balnagowan, the last of his race, sold
that estate to the Hon. General Ross, the brother of the twelfth
Lord Ross of Hawkhead, who, although bearing the same surname,
was not in any way related to him.
In
February 1778, Munro Ross of Pitcalnie presented a petition to
the king, claiming the earldom of Ross, as male descendant of
the above-named Hugh Ross of Rarichies. This petition was sent
to the House of Lords, but no decision appears to have followed
upon it.
According
to Mr Skene, Ross of Pitcalnie is the representative of the
ancient earls; but as this claim has been disputed, and as other
authorities think the Balnagowan family has a stronger claim to
the chiefship, we shall take the liberty of quoting what Mr
Smibert says on behalf of the latter: - "Mr Skese labours,
with a pertinacity to us almost incomprehensible, to destroy the
pretensions of the house, to represent the old Earls of Ross. He
attempts to make out, firstly, that Paul Mactyre (or Mactire),
who headed for a time the clan Ross, was the true male-heir of
the fifth Earl of Ross, the last of the first house; and that
the Balnagowan family, therefore, had no claims at that early
time. he quotes 'an ancient historian of Highland families' to
prove the great power and possessions of Paul Mactyre, the
passage, as cited, running thus: 'Paul Mactyre was a valiant
man, and caused Caithness to pay him blackmail. It is reported
that he got nyn score of cowes yearly out of Caithness for
black-mail so long as he was able to travel'.
"Now,
there are a few words omitted in this citation. The original
document, now before us, begins thus: 'Paul M'Tyre, aforesaid,
grandchild to Leandris' that is, grandchild to Gilleanrias, the
founder of the clan, and its name-giver. If he was the grandson
of the founder of the sept, Paul Mactyre could certainly never
have been the heir of the fifth Earl of Ross, unless he had
lived to a most unconscionable age. It would seem as if Mr Skene
here erred from the old cause - that is, from his not unnatural
anxiety to enhance the value and authenticity of the MS of 1450,
which was his own discovery, and certainly was a document of
great interest. That MS speaks of Paul Mactyre as heading the
clan at a comparatively late period. We greatly prefer the view
of the case already given by us, which is, that Paul Mactyre was
either kinsman or quasi tutor to one of the first Ross earls, or
successfully usurped their place for a time.
"Besides,
the ancient document quoted by Mr Skene to show the greatness of
Paul Mactyre, mentions also the marriage of 'his doughter and
heire' to Walter, laird of Balnagowne. If the document be good
for one thing, it must be held good also for others. Such a
marriage seems quite natural, supposing Mactyre to have been a
near kinsman of the Rosses.
"Perhaps
too much has been already said on this subject to please general
readers; but one of our main objectives is to give to clansmen
all the rational information procurable on their several family
histories".
"Among
another class of Rosses or Roses", says the same authority,
"noticed by Nisbet as bearing distinct arms, the principal
family appears to be that of Rose of Kilravock", to which a
number of landed houses trace their origin. According to a
tradition at one period prevalent among the clan Donald, the
first of the Kilravock family came from Ireland, with one of the
Macdonalds, Lords of the Isles. There does not seem, however, to
be any foundation for this, except, perhaps, that as vassals of
the Earls of Ross, the clan Rose were connected for about half a
century with the lordship of the Isles. Mr Hugh Rose, the
genealogist of the Kiravock family, is of opinion that they were
originally from England, and from their having three water
bougets in their coat armour, like the English family of Roos,
it has been conjectured that they were of the same stock. But
these figures were carried by other families than those of the
name Rose or Roos. Four water bougets with a cross in the middle
were the arms of the Counts D'Eu in Normandy, and of the ancient
Earls of Essex in England of the surname of Bourchier. They were
indicative of an ancestor of the respective families who bore
them having been engaged in the crusades, and forced, in the
deserts of Palestine, to fight for and carry water in the
leather vessels called bougets, budgets, or buckets, which were
usually slung across the horse or camel's back. The badge of the
Roses is Wild Rosemary.
The
family of Rose of Kilravock appear to have been settled in the
county of Nairn since the reign of David I.
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